The Shadows Creep
by IloveAdrian
Summary: New Moon AU Bella does not make it in time to save Edward and he dies at the hand of the Volturi. But is Edward truly gone when she hears his voice? Sees him standing over her in her sleep? Cannon ghost story unlike any before. Darkward.


The Shadows Creep

**AN: Here with a new story. This is a cannon New Moon AU Ghost Story. Sounds fun right? This story is an experiment on a simple question. What happens after a vampire dies? Hopefully this story will answer that. Even I don't know what will happen next. Hope you enjoy. Please review. Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR ITS CHARACTERS. THEY BELONG TO STEPHANIE MEYER. I HOWEVER DO OWN THIS STORY.**

**Full Summary: **

**Bella does not make it in time to save Edward and he dies at the hand of the Volturi. But is Edward truly gone when she hears his voice? Sees him standing over her in her sleep? What is real when one wakes to have one's most desired wish, only to have it ripped away each and every time? Can love really be stronger than even death? Who is to be trusted, and who is to be feared? The agony, the want, the need becomes an obsession until Bella has to find the answer to a question long asked. What happens after a vampire dies? A Twilight Ghost story unlike any before.**

Chapter 1

She kept running. It didn't matter for how long, or how hard, or even that it felt as if her heart would beat right out of her chest, because none of that mattered. Not the burn her aching muscles felt, or the way her skin was over heated and red, or how her chest heaved in heavy, painful ways. But none of that would nearly be as painful as it would be losing him. She had lost him before, but he had been alive. He had been somewhere in the world, doing whatever it is he felt like doing, and though she needed him more than air, it was just the slightest bit okay because he was alive and well.

But now he wasn't and if she didn't make it, then everything no longer mattered. A world where he didn't exist wasn't what she could take.

Somewhere inside of her, a confidence was growing. A confidence, not that he would want her, but a confidence that she could save him. Save him and look at him and smell him, perhaps run her fingers over the cold smoothness of his skin. To look into those golden eyes of his, to feel just how much she loved him.

She even allowed herself to imagine what would happen afterwards. She and Alice would be happy and relaxed, Alice chattering on about what the rest of the Cullens would be doing and she would listen and be relieved to hear any news of them. He would sit there, perhaps silent and thoughtful, or calm and dead like he was when he left, or maybe he would smile that crooked smile that sent her heart racing.

Not once, did she think of what would happen if she failed.

*******

There were voices surrounding her, loud and soft and upset and angry and even screams at one point but she couldn't focus on anything but the way he had looked at her. It was a way she had seen before and yet had not, because he looked at her in the way he used to, with love, with adoration, with fondness, with sadness, but he had also looked at her with peace, and an understanding that he had made yet another mistake, and one that he would not live to correct, and he had smiled crookedly at her, even as he was dragged into the shadows, black robes fluttering around the paleness of his skin. She remembered thinking that he had never looked as beautiful, or as frightening.

*******

It was dark. He could taste it on his tongue, feel it as it slithered along his body like a long lost pet, smiling and whispering and screaming all at once. He almost choked on it, but he didn't have to breathe. His heart didn't beat. Somehow he knew that this was it. The end. There was nothing else for him.

But the darkness melded into him, melted into his skin and he felt it in his hair, deep into his eyes and teeth. And then he smiled.

*******

When they brought Bella back to him, she was hanging limply in the big Cullen's arms like a rag doll. He remembered how she looked that night, muttering to him how Edward was gone and the rage and hatred rose to the surface.

"What the hell has that little bastard done to her now!?" He screamed, his face turning almost purple.

So he was surprised, shocked into stillness as Esme, small, sweet, gentle Esme reared forward and slapped him. It almost felt as if a small boulder had hit him and his face rocked to the side.

"Don't _ever _speak of my sonlike that again Charlie Swan!" She snarled and Carlisle stepped forward to wrap his arms around her shoulders, and the usually gentle doctor's face was hard, his eyes narrowed and black, and Charlie knew that he wanted to have a go at him as well.

And Alice looked as if he disgusted her and the look hurt more than he wanted to admit. She nodded to Emmett and he moved forward, setting Bella gently onto the sofa before stepping back.

Alice looked at him with dead eyes, and the other Cullen brother wrapped his long arms around her tiny form.

"Edward killed himself because he thought Bella was dead. So think about that the next time you speak ill of him." With that said, the Cullens looked at Bella for a long moment before turning their backs to him and leaving.

*******

She woke slowly, her eyes blinking away the blurriness. She could make out the beams of light from the moon, and her vision cleared as she turned to stare blankly at her window. The blinds were drawn up and the smooth glass reflected the freedom of the tree gently swaying outside of it.

Edward was late. She continued to stare, as if she could somehow will him to come sooner, crawling through the square space to smile crookedly at her, his golden eyes glinting with mirth at her miffed expression. And slowly, very slowly, she remembered that he hadn't come through that window for months. And now, he never would again.

Her heart started to race, her face hot as unimaginable pain shot through her and she curled into herself with a loud, shrill scream. It felt as if her heart was eating itself out of her stomach, desperate to find him, die with him. She writhed as if venom flowed through her veins and she wished that were true. Maybe then she would have been able to save him.

Charlie bust through the door and to her side, his arms too big and too warm for the arms she needed, would do anything to feel again.

"Bella! Bella-"

"He's gone! I watched him die! I couldn't save him….oh God!" She wasn't even aware of half the things she said.

Her screams rung through the room, splitting the air with sounds of pure anguish. Charlie's ears were ringing, his heart beating so fast that part of him feared a heart attack. He might as well, because the sounds his only daughter was making weren't human.

They were the sounds of an animal mourning the loss of its mate. Nothing he said or did had any affect on her.

"Grab her Alice."

Charlie hadn't even noticed them come in and he wondered if he had left the door unlocked.

Bella was removed from his arms, her small form huddled against the even smaller form of Alice Cullen.

Her father gently grasped Bella's arm, his face strangely expressionless as he pushed the needle into her arm. She slowly quieted, her eyes wide but glazed over as she stared into nothing.

"Thank you," Charlie said quietly.

Carlisle shrugged, an uncharacteristic gesture for the usually mild mannered man.

_That's because he just lost his son idiot. _Charlie cursed himself for being so insensitive. He clapped Carlisle on the shoulder, frowning lightly at how hard he was.

"I'm… really sorry for how I acted earlier… and about Edward," he said unsurely.

There was no sign that the doctor even heard him but the man nodded lightly, his eyes still focused on Bella.

Her eyes were closed now and they would have thought her peaceful if not for the tormented expression on her face, the only clue to the hell brewing inside of her.

*******

_He was still looking at her as she fell, one hand bracing herself up painfully and the other reaching for him, as if the will of her fingers could pull him safely into her grasp._

_His lips gently tilted up into that beautiful crooked smile , all the while still giving her that strange look as he was dragged away._

_Flash_

_He was still looking at her as she fell, one hand bracing herself up painfully and the other reaching for him, as if the will of her fingers could pull him safely into her grasp. He lifted one hand as if to take hers._

_His lips gently tilted up into that beautiful crooked smile, all the while still giving her that strange look as he was dragged away._

_Flash_

_He was still looking at her as she fell, one hand bracing herself up painfully and the other reaching for him, as if the will of her fingers could pull him safely into her grasp. He lifted one hand as if to take hers. He turned it up and let it hang there waiting patiently for her to place her own there._

_His lips gently tilted up into that beautiful crooked smile, all the while still giving her that strange look as he was dragged away._

_Flash_

_He was still looking at her as she fell, one hand bracing herself up painfully and the other reaching for him, as if the will of her fingers could pull him safely into her grasp. He lifted one hand as if to take hers. He turned it up and let it hang there waiting patiently for her to place her own there._

_His lips gently tilted up into that beautiful crooked smile, his mouth opening, whispering the words so quietly that she knew she shouldn't have heard all the while still giving her that strange look as he was dragged away._

"_I've missed you… love."_

***

She jerked up, panting. "Edward?"

A soft thud answered her in the silent room as her heart beat sped up, her eyes looking frantically around the room until they landed on the shadow in the corner of her room.

She stared, trying desperately not to hope. "Edward… please… please tell me you're here…" she crawled off of her bed, her eyes never moving away from the figure. She couldn't make out any features but she knew. It had to be…

A soft chuckle greeted her ears.

"Didn't you call out to me, love?"


End file.
